In Australia, a significant number of construction businesses - nearly half - have lost clients or jobs simply because they didn't respond quickly enough, with no issues related to cost or work quality.
That's according to new research commissioned by OpenAI, surveying more than 1,000 Australian small and medium business owners and operators, which found 45% of construction respondents had lost potential work because of slow response times. Almost two in three, 62%, said quoting, invoicing or scheduling jobs eats up more of their week than the work itself.
It's not a subtle problem. More than half of the small business owners and operators surveyed, 56%, said they regularly feel time pressure from competing demands: admin, customer follow-ups, inventory orders, invoicing, all stacked on top of the actual job. And for a lot of tradies, that pressure doesn't stay inside business hours. It follows them home.
The gap isn't appetite. Most construction respondents already think AI could help: 60% said it could streamline job management, and 62% said it could improve communication with clients. The gap is training. Seven in ten of those surveyed have had no formal instruction in how to actually use it.
Real time back, for those already using it
For business owners who have started using AI tools, the research suggests the payoff is real rather than marginal. Nearly three in four, 74%, said they save at least an hour a week. More than a quarter, 26%, said they save seven hours or more.
That's the gap CommBank and OpenAI are now trying to close directly. The two have launched a Business Masterclass AI series, hosted on CommBank's website, aimed specifically at trades: turning site notes, photos and rough measurements into customer-ready quotes and scopes of work, using voice tools hands-free on the job, working out materials, and building simple tools like quote calculators, job trackers and lead follow-up systems.
It builds on a broader partnership the two organisations announced in December 2025, which also involves Coles and Wesfarmers and is aimed at bringing basic AI skills training to more than a million Australian workers and small businesses. CommBank has said the programme is meant to reach around a million small business customers with training modules.
Commonwealth Bank Executive General Manager Small Business Banking, Rebecca Warren, said the time pressure on trade business owners was specific and relentless.
"Small business owners are incredibly time-poor. For trade business owners, every hour spent preparing quotes, chasing invoices or managing schedules is an hour away from customers and the tools," Warren said. "And because that work still needs to get done, it often spills into their nights."
Brent Thomas, OpenAI's Head of Policy for Australia and New Zealand, made a similar point about what tradies actually need from AI training.
"Tradies don't need abstract lessons about AI. They need tools and skills they can put to work straight away," Thomas said. "Whether it's turning rough notes into a polished quote, drafting a customer email or creating a simple job tracker, AI can help small businesses spend less time on repetitive work and more time growing their business."
Why so many haven't tried it yet
The research also points to why AI adoption among small businesses has been slower than the appetite for it suggests it should be. For those who haven't taken it up, the leading concerns were data privacy (39%) and the quality of what the tools actually produce (35%), followed by not knowing which tools to use (30%) and a general lack of AI knowledge (29%).
Those aren't unreasonable concerns for a business owner handling customer details, addresses and payment information on a shared device between job sites. It's also the reason a structured training series, rather than a generic "go try ChatGPT" nudge, is the shape this initiative has taken.
What's actually on offer
Eligible CommBank business customers can also get two free ChatGPT business users for 60 days through CommBank Yello for Business, the bank's customer recognition programme. That programme, worth knowing if you haven't used it, isn't automatic or universal: it's currently limited to sole traders and single-director corporate customers who hold an eligible CommBank business transaction account, with eligibility reassessed monthly based on account activity.
For anyone running a trade business who recognises the numbers in this research, the practical next step is checking eligibility in the CommBank app rather than assuming the offer applies, and treating the masterclass content as a starting point rather than a full fix. The research points to a real problem. Whether a two-month trial and a training series closes the gap for good is something that will only show up in next year's numbers.
This article is based on research commissioned by OpenAI and a joint CommBank–OpenAI initiative. It is general information, not financial or business advice.